ARC 497P/597P Architecture/Performance

In this course, which will mix the practices of research seminar and design laboratory, performance design will be examined as a critical and experimental terrain in which dynamic and complex spatial, temporal, experiential, material and social forces are played out. Students will gain an understanding about performance space design and spatial practices, develop research and analytical skills, learn to put research to work in service of design practice in general and in service of generating specific design proposals, and to work collaboratively on a project that must come to fruition within a short time period, and to reflect critically upon both the performance of designed space and design as a performative activity.

This seminar will include two parts; the first part will be dedicated to researching contemporary issues of performance and performativity as well as performance spaces in relation to the nature of the performance/event housed. The second part will be dedicated to the collective laboratory project involving the designing, fabricating and performing of abstract theater machines based upon the research generated in the first part of the semester. The project will put research into action and into space; based upon research students will establish the project intentions through a proposal; test and develop prototypes on a conceptual, material, spatial and performative level; and ultimately situate the work, with action that engages a public inhabiting the space. Documentation of and critical reflection upon the process and work will an important final chapter to the semester’s work.